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Class Jan. 19, Day 1 of Decentered Narratives Van-gogh-a-pair-of-shoes.jpg|A Pair of Shoes, Vincent Van Gogh Warhol shoes.gif|Diamond Dust Shoes, Andy Warhol NudeDescendingtheStairs.jpg|Nude Descending the Stairs, Marcel Duchamp chrysler_museum-familyof4.jpg|Hamlet Robot, Nam June Paik 220px-The_Scream.jpg|The Scream, Edvard Munch bonaventure hotel.jpg|Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles Bonaventure Hotel Interior.jpg|Interior - Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles Interior.jpg|Interior 2 - Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles <--------------Works of art & architecture discussed Jameson - "The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" Van Gogh's "A Pair of Shoes" *Modernist (MOD) *evoke a sense of history, narrative, time, and singularity Warhol's "Diamond Dust Shoes" *Postmodern (POMO) *deindividualization - shoes could belong to anyone *superficiality *mass consumption of commerical products Jameson on POMO *capital has significantly shaped contemporary society *a celebration of mass 'surface' culture *interested in crafting reality through fragmentation, chaos, and the 'surface' *MOD era economics relied on manufacturing, while POMO centered around mass production via the assembly line *production became strongly centralized and in turn centralized capital *the assembly line was usurped and capital and labor (with less regulation) became fluid in the postindustrial age What is the artist's method of dealing with the posindustrial condition? *precursor to POMO art was Dadaism - "art for art's sake," no search for meaning, but only a reflection of it *"Hamlet Robot" at the Chrysler - celebration of fragmentation; the MOD subject would focus on one TV screen, while the POMO subject would acknowledge them all *Munch's "The Scream" - reflected MOD alienation and anxiety *Bonaventure Hotel: defamiliaizes the subject; exists as a deliberately confusing hyperspace, speaking the language of POMO, reflecting the city back to itself, transcending the urge to make sense of space WHEREAS - MOD buildings were landmarks creating order in cityscapes Jameson's Conclusions *the POMO condition is inarticulable *it is neither good nor bad *POMO IS A STATE OF BEING - a "forcefield of production" - you cannot explain it with merely one label! Lyotard - "The Postmodern Condition" *Scientific knowledge - there's a degree of performativity at work when you can test what you know *Narrative knowledge - used to be legitmated via grand narratives, but POMO writers reject/are skeptical of them *The problem: there is no sense of historicity, no ethical standard to performativity, and you cannot legitimate POMO with any kind of totalizing ideology *The solution? PARALOGY. Mangel - "Maxwell's Demon, Entropy, Information: The Crying of Lot 49" *the most conventional reading of the novel *entropy: formula within theories of information and thermodynamics; with time, order turns to chaos *thermodynamics: universe created by the big bang, as the universe spreads out "heat death" will eventually occur *more chaos = more information *Oedipa is Maxwell's demon at a cost to herself *Fragmentation IS the answer - Oedipia is isolated and experiencing heat death *Information theory: the more information abounds the less meaning there is *Pynchon wants to leave the 'circuits' open - within more possibilities lie more meanings Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 Character Depictions Oedipa *novel's opening line linguistically characterizes her as a victim of stereotypical suburban housewifery and tedium *frequently depicted as isolated/contained *grossly dependent on male characters - a feminist criticism? Mucho Maas *identity crisis: tries to live beyond stereotypes *becomes a figure that literally transmits (ike an antenna); "speaks in chorus" Metzger - identity in limbo: wants to move beyond mediated representations of his role (the child actor, the lawyer) Doctor Hilarius - Oedipa doesn't follow the ritual/script of shooting him, which is troubling to his death/paranoia fantasy Driblette *projects his own world *his 'taking a brody' and not providing Oedipa all of the answers opens an avenue for her to take control of her own destiny *plays into Foucault's notion that it is fruitless to lionize the author John Nefastis *his machine runs on faith *falst prophet: name is parallel to John the Baptist Tristero *the mere existence of an alternate channel of communication is important for Oedipa *Stanley Kotecks and the blank letters: the medium IS the message Class Jan. 26, Day 2 of Decentered Narratives Joseph Heller was born in 1923. Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York, to first generation Russian-Jewish immigrants. Many critics believe that Heller developed the sardonic, wisecracking humor that has marked his writing style while growing up in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn.In 1942, Heller enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Two years later he was sent to Corsica, where he flew sixty combat missions as a wing bombardier, earning an Air Medal and a Presidential Unit Citation. His first successful novel was'' Catch-22'' published in 1961. It is believed that his time spent in the Army Air Corps had little impact on his novel, Catch-22. Category:February 9th - Underworld